[miningmx.com] – NEVILLE Nicolau, CEO of Basil Read, has criticised his former boss at Anglo American, Cynthia Carroll, saying she botched the management of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats). Carroll resigned as Anglo CEO in 2012.
In an article by Business Times, Nicolau is quoted to have said that Carroll did not want him to run Amplats, in which Anglo had a 78% stake, and that she tried to bring “American rules to Africa”.
Nicolau also said he would have tackled the effects of the rise of union, the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (AMCU), and the decline in the platinum price on Amplats differently. He said: “… with a bit of mature, positive leadership I think the issues could have been resolved within a month and not five months’.
“Because I was part of the South African mining industry, my own record didn’t count. She thought I had blood on my hands. They tried very hard to find someone from overseas to run Amplats,’ he said of the safety record Carroll wanted to improve.
“We crossed swords from the very beginning. As long as Fred Phaswana was the chairman of Amplats, it was possible to resolve differences by using him as the mediator,’ he said.
When Phaswana left in 2010, Carroll “made herself’ chairwoman and overruled her more experienced CEO, he said. Nicolau resigned as CEO of Amplats several months before Carroll resigned.
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